To Buy an OMS Wing or not

[bits]

Afternoon all, I am heading to LIDS to buy a wing, actually to buy two, my choice is the Double OMS 100 with Bungies, AM I MAD???  Those of you who have one, could you tell me if you are happy with em.

I have decided againist halycon but am open to other ideas.

[Mr T.]

Hey Bits,

Welcome to YD mate.

There is a ruck of guys on here who use the OMS wing - and conversely a goodly number using the Halcyon, so we should be able to give you what you need either way. Any particualr reason you've decided against the Halcyon? Just out of interest?

[bits]

Hey Bren

Yep I think they are overpriced but very well made (I was in ginnie springs a few weeks ago and visited the Halycon factory).  My bigger issue is that I tried one last year in malta and got sea-sick.  It was my girlfriends one, she had twin 10's and a halycon wing that a bit too big, air moving around too much and I end up puking the whole dive, not good.  Thats the reason for the OMS, the bungies should avoid the puck factor and since I use steel 10 stages my rig is fairly heavy, need the lift.

[Mr T.]

Hey Dave,

Fair-go mate. What ever works, right? On here, you've got Jay (Heads Up), Ben and a few others is an OMS and they like them.

I will say though, that my Halcyon 55 can take my twin 12's and two stages nay worries. And are you gonna do us a dive report for your jaunt to Ginnie - you jammy sod! ;) More please!

[Dr Stevil]

Hi Dave
I've got an OMS 100lb bungied single bladder with IQ harness (inc ali BP). I'm reasonably happy with it but also not adverse to being objective about it:

Not particualry impressed with the dump valves, seem a bit slow for my liking, similarly the inflate is slow but I believe that is a safety feature in case of valves jamming open.

For maintenance purposes I think these fittings are a pain in the butt to disassemble, I had to make a special tool (two small nails and a piece of wood) to seperate the outer and inner dump valve assemblies. On Sunday I broke my uppermost pull dump and without a vice and the "special tool" couldn't disassemble it for repair, if you're far afield those things could be a problem

Once, on land, the bladder inflator jammed open but I sorted that by turning the button a few degrees, haven't yet took that apart to look for the reason. Material-wise, I'm happy that it is robust enough to give a good long life.

Lift-wise I'm more than happy with it, especially after hefting a trainees 30-odd pound weightbelt back to shore this sunday.

Re the bungee argument, I regularly orally inflate my bladder (oo-er missus) for a bit of practice and don't find it too difficult.

Re the double inflate, I'm assuming you're going for this option to do warm water deep stuff - Pierre in Malta may have some input on this as I believe that's his setup, don't know if he uses OMS or not though.

HTH
Steve

(Edited by Steve W at 3:16 pm on Feb. 24, 2003)

[rasilon]

Since a wing is vaguely on my shopping list for LIDS too, I'll jump in with failing to have a clue...  I'm looking at the DiveRite single Rec wing; it's cheap and (it looks like) it'll do the job.  I'm currently diving a single plus pony so  I need something that wont flap with a single, but will allow me to use twins at some point in the future.  Having seen a DiveRite harness close up, I figure that I'd be better off with a Combro backplate and simple webbing.  The reason I'm considering replacing my jacket BCD is that the wrap-around air cell restricts the clip points, and makes the pockets vestigial and awkward leading to a greater case of the danglies than I'm happy with.  So, on the assumption that I'm being a numpty, what's wrong with this plan?

[Pierre Farrugia]

Hello,
I use the Custom Divers TBD, and I think it has about 55lbs and is more than enough for twin 12 plus two 10's stages  (all steel)and diving wet. While shopping around I was between OMS or CD, and opted for CD as it has a very comfy adj. harness just like a normal bc and can be used for a single tanks with no added hardware or stuff. So for twins I use their SS bands and for single tanks just a cam belt. Here in Malta never seen a Halycon so cannot comment but a friend of mine uses an OMS with twin 15's and Lawrence D has one and looks very robust...hehe..not Lawrence but his OMS wing, unfortunatlky he didn't forgot it here in Malta but who knows nextJune:)

[Dr Stevil]

forgot to add that I opted for the IQ harness rather than the bare BP because i) wanted to use single with the wing till I could afford twins and didn't want to fork out 70 quid for the single tank adaptor,  ii) wanted something which was warm to the touch for diving overseas. Re size of bladder, I thought might as well get the big one as the bungees keep it tidy and it doesn't really take up any extra space in the luggage for holiday trips (only been on one though ;)

[Jay]

OMS is the dogs bollocks mate - love mine to bits (single bladder, non bungeed). Well made piece of kit and well priced too. Made my own harness but their own basic harnesses are ok too.

[Duncan]

I use 100lb double bladder bungeed oms wing - no complaints